Electrical work in a bungalow

P933alilli

Hi, ive just had a quote of £560 from a local electrician to remove the old mains board and replace with a new metal clad RCBO mains board with surge protection and also to upgrade the 16mm tails with 25 mm tails.

   And also, £120, to install 2x bonding conductors, one for incoming gas and one for incoming water supply!

  This is in a bungalow which was built in 1961 and has never had the mains board upgraded afaik! I was just wondering if the quotes are reasonable? Thanks!

FreeBear

Sounds on the cheap side to me. But as long as you get all the necessary paperwork and the seals are reinstated on the main fuse & meter, you should be fine.

Exodi

Sounds like a bargain, it costs that just to get an electrician out bed down my neck of the woods, plus consumer units aren't cheap.

diveunderthebonnet

We paid £545.00 for a new consumer unit and certification 2 years ago ,we live in the N E of England.

RAS

Does it specify that the quote (it is a quote, not an estimate?) includes all materials and labour and certification? 

Veteransaver

P933alilli said:

Hi, ive just had a quote of £560 from a local electrician to remove the old mains board and replace with a new metal clad RCBO mains board with surge protection and also to upgrade the 16mm tails with 25 mm tails.

   And also, £120, to install 2x bonding conductors, one for incoming gas and one for incoming water supply!

  This is in a bungalow which was built in 1961 and has never had the mains board upgraded afaik! I was just wondering if the quotes are reasonable? Thanks!

How many circuits/ways in the current cu and how many on the new one (it's worth getting one with a couple of spare ways).
Rcbo boards aren't that expensive these days, eg depends on make but a small 6 way board for example is less than £100. But it's a day's work usually so £560 seems about right to be fair.
There is often other work involved though which may be extra if there are issues with the wiring, eg when mine old non RCD board was replaced with an RCD one it became apparent that some of the lighting had the neutrals wired into earth by the previous owner! Which obviously required additional fault finding and rectification!
£120 for the bonding sounds a bit steep, especially if it's being done at the same time.

MysteryMe

Last year, in the South East. Included required building regs notification and certificate. £1020 inc VAT.  

Consumer unit works and earth bonding:

•

Update consumer unit with new metal clad consumer unit

•

Install SPD and 30ma RCBO’s

•

Wire and install 10mm earth bonding to gas and water services

•

Test electrics on completion
.

FreeBear

Veteransaver said: How many circuits/ways in the current cu and how many on the new one (it's worth getting one with a couple of spare ways).
Rcbo boards aren't that expensive these days, eg depends on make but a small 6 way board for example is less than £100.

Fit a 10 way in a bungalow even if you only need 5 or 6 circuits. The extra slots would be available should you want to install an EV charger and a heat pump. And you'd still have 2 slots left to power a garage/shed or (god forbid), a hot tub.

Exodi

diveunderthebonnet said:

We paid £545.00 for a new consumer unit and certification 2 years ago ,we live in the N E of England.

MysteryMe said:

Last year, in the South East. Included required building regs notification and certificate. £1020 inc VAT.  

This highlights one of my biggest peeves with this board - the OP has not stated where they live.

I don't know why the board 'Is this quote fair?' is popping up for me more often now, but it feels like every thread I read is an OP proposing something like "quoted £10k for a kitchen, is that fair?" and the answer should virtually always be "Impossible to say without more detail" until they at least give an indication of where they are based, the spec of materials, whether they are providing them are tradesperson is, scope of the job, etc.

But to keep this forum running and to prevent threads just turning into "impossible to say" spam, you're just forced to guess.

Veteransaver said:
Rcbo boards aren't that expensive these days, eg depends on make but a small 6 way board for example is less than £100. But it's a day's work usually so £560 seems about right to be fair.

And after they've finished wiring the RCD for the wendy house, what do you propose they use for the bungalow?

P933alilli

Hi, back again, i'm in NW England!

   The RCBO fusebox is the F2011m surge protection, 11 way. All this is completely new to me but when i lift the lid there are 7 metal pieces and to the right of those 2 x B6, 2 x B32, a red replace and then main switch!

    When the old board was being taken out before being replaced with the new RCBO one it was found that the wiring to the lights and sockets in other rooms were'nt earthed. So, hes going to send me a quote next week to have all the extra work done. I' m again wondering what would be a fair price?Thanks!

QrizB

P933alilli said:

... it was found that the wiring to the lights and sockets in other rooms were'nt earthed. So, hes going to send me a quote next week to have all the extra work done. I' m again wondering what would be a fair price?

Depending on exactly what's wrong, it might need anything from a few metres of additional cable to a full rewire. So £200-2000+. Did the electrician say anything more specific about the shortfalls?